Closing The Book On The Green-White

BGA (May 22) – Dartmouth’s annual spring Green-White Game earlier this month was unlike any before it, but also familiar.

As was the case through much of the spring, the weather did not cooperate. Given just three returning starters on offense and three on defense, head coach Sammy McCorkle very much wanted the 12th and final session of the spring to be a meaningful practice and not a slippery mess, so he had it moved indoors for the first time ever. Conducting a scoring scrimmage on a 70-yard field had its challenges.

Still the first indoor Green-White did have echoes of the past. According to those in attendance, play was sharp. The enthusiasm was palpable. And while there was no tackling, of course, there was plenty of action and more physicality than you might expect in a non-tackling contest.

Rising senior wide receiver Daniel Haughton knew the team would be unfazed by the change of venues from Memorial Field to the indoor facility.

“We always talk about sudden change and being able to adapt and improvise, so I think it was good,” he said, using former coach Buddy Teevens’ famed A&I expression. “We came out and we played with energy.

“The defense played well. The offense played well. I think we competed really well.”

McCorkle expected nothing less.

“It was the final exam,” he said. “It was a chance for us coaches and your teammates to kind of see how you're going to perform in a game situation. I thought our guys first of all took care of each other, but at the same time, you can see how we got physical, especially down in the red zone.

“Guys stepped it up, but I just thought overall the guys that came out here prepared to play full speed the entire time, and we were able to accomplish all the things that we wanted to accomplish.”

That’s exactly what McCorkle hoped and expected to see.

"I've been in a lot of spring practices here at Dartmouth College over 20 years, and they were all good,” he said, “but I tell you, this one here, you could just tell and sense the energy every single day.

“The one thing we never have to coach is hustle. We never have to coach effort. Those guys do a great job preparing themselves and playing fast.”

Grayson Saunier, who filled in admirably last fall when Jackson Proctor was sidelined and showed himself to be a talented runner when the starter returned, looked confident and composed under center in the Green-White. With classmate Woods Ray sidelined due to a medical procedure, freshman Noah Trigueros opened eyes throughout the spring and in the final practice.

As expected, the deep Big Green running backs group impressed in the scrimmage. And the wide receivers group, working under new coach Mitchell Thompson, who joined the program during spring ball, showed flashes with lanky 6-foot-2 James Elliott drawing notice.

Defensively, the graduation of Josiah Green (already practicing this spring at Duke) and Ivy League defensive player of the year Ejike Adele (a Rice grad transfer) will be felt, but rising senior Dakota Quiñonez showed the indoor practice facility onlookers he’s ready to help fill the gap. Cameron Lee, the 6-5, 220-pound rising junior linebacker, also showed why he could be a factor as an edge rusher.

“I'd say this was a really good spring for us,” said offensive lineman Delby Lemieux. “. . . One of the biggest things we try to harp on is that you know we're not last year's team. This is a new team. We're the 2025 Dartmouth football team. I think we did a really good job of embracing that this offseason, and coming into the spring, staying true to that throughout these last 12 practices and these workouts.

“I’m really proud of what all the young guys did. I saw them grow a lot. They progressed a lot at each of their positions. I think we're poised to have a really good summer and have a really strong start to the fall camp.”

The day included the naming of Dartmouth’s trio of 2025 captains: Lemieux, senior safety Sean Williams, and senior wide receiver Daniel Haughton.

Said McCorkle of the selections: “The guys did a phenomenal job. They hit it right on the head, choosing those captains. All three of those guys are phenomenal. They bring a little bit of different ways of leadership, but I tell you what, they've proven to be leaders of our football program.

“They're guys who have worked hard here, who've played a lot for us and they're exactly what Dartmouth football represents. . . . (But as) I told the guys, ‘Hey they're they're captains, but everybody here has to be a leader.’ ”

Which is exactly what Williams sounded like after the Green-White game.

“I think the spring game was good,” he said. “There was a lot of energy. . . . The best thing you can take away from spring – whether it is good or bad – is you can see what you need to improve on in the offseason or moving into the season.”

And that was part of McCorkle’s message with spring wrapping up.

“The biggest thing now is, we had a good spring, but we’ve got to continue to take this thing to the next level,” he said. “This is not when we put it on cruise control and we challenge the guys. If you're here on campus or you're off campus, you got to be totally committed. This is a huge offseason, and a huge summer for us leading into the preseason.”

NOTES

• Per McCorkle, roughly 50 players are expected to be on campus this summer working with new strength coach Conor McNally and independently on Memorial Field.

• The recruiting class, not yet formally introduced, will feature 27 players. “The group of guys we’ve got coming in hit all the spots that we needed to hit. And I tell you the one thing, physically you look at these guys and they are one of the better physical looking groups of incoming freshmen that we've ever had.

“When it comes to the offensive line and defensive line, the size of those guys is massive. In the skill positions we targeted a certain type of skill that we're looking for and we felt like we checked all the boxes.”

• McCorkle wouldn’t rule out any incoming players making contributions this fall. “There may be a few potentially. But usually the way we operate here at Dartmouth, we do a very good job developing our players. And hopefully, we don't have to depend and lean on a first-year guy to step in and play.

“But if a guy comes in and he's ready to play and he's a difference maker, he'll have every opportunity to do that.”

• Dartmouth coaches hit the road recruiting shortly after the spring game and will work a good number of camps around the country looking for talent. They’ll be back in town to get a good look at prospective recruits at the one-day Sammy McCorkle Football Camps on June 20, 23, 26, and 27 as well as July 11 and 12.

• McCorkle will be in Los Angeles early next month for a Friends of Dartmouth Football event at SoFi Stadium hosted by former Big Green kicker Dennis Durkin ’93. The event is scheduled for 6:30-8:30 p.m. on June 5.

* Editor’s Note: Because of a family wedding, I was unable to attend the Green-White spring game. Observations in the story were shared by knowledgable people who were there, and quotes in the story are lightly edited from head coach Sammy McCorkle and from video interviews.*